You don't hear much about it, but the fact is that Roe vs. Wade did not
simply give a woman the
right to an abortion. It placed on the physician the responsibility to
insure the safety of the woman
who gets an abortion.
And that's where the supporters of Roe vs. Wade fail to implement Roe vs.
Wade.
Abortion remains the most unregulated surgical industry in the nation. Some
90% of abortions are
not performed in hospitals, but rather in "clinics" which most states exempt
from regulation. In
fact, in the vast majority of states, veterinary clinics are more regulated
than abortion clinics.
Just look at the laws that are or are not on the books. First of all, an
abortionist does not have to
have a specialty in OB-GYN. Rather, your abortionist may be a urologist, an
allergist, or a plastic
surgeon. What, furthermore, are the licensing requirements for the staff of
abortion clinics?
Usually, there are none. How about regulations regarding the presence of
emergency medical
equipment in the clinic, in case a complication should arise, or the laws
governing how such an
emergency should be handled? Let me know when you find such laws.
The question, of course, is why is abortion so unregulated? After all, if
abortion is a legitimate
medical procedure, should it not follow the same standards as other
legitimate medical
procedures?
The beginning of an answer may be found in the kinds of people who do
abortions. Face it, one
does not spend years of effort and tens of thousands of dollars to become a
doctor in order to be
known as an abortionist. Three decades of legalization have not taken the
stigma out of abortion.
"Fewer and fewer physicians wish to perform abortions" (Journal of Medical
Ethics, Volume 22,
1996).
As a result, this area of "medical" practice remains as shady as it ever
was, and attracts the losers
and washouts of the medical community. I know many of those that used to
perform abortions and
no longer do. Some, in fact, posed as doctors without having spent a day in
medical school. Others
testify that they never sterilized the instruments. And stories of sexual
abuse in abortion clinics
abound. This, remember, is taking place in legal abortion clinics.
So what are we in the pro-life community asking? We are calling for a full
investigation of what is
going on in abortion clinics. Nobody knows how many abuses are happening,
but the more you
look, the more you find. Furthermore, we call for more states to exercise
their Constitutionally
protected right to regulate abortion clinics. We are also calling on the
"pro-choice" groups to be
honest. Being in favor of women's rights and health should include action to
insure that clinics
protect women against the malpractice of unscrupulous abortionists. After
all, if you care about
the exploitation of women, you care about it no matter who is doing the
exploiting.